Ah Narita airport. Site of unending construction, aircraft flying, lines in Immigration and dark gray skies. Back here again for a quick jaunt to Hong Kong then catch the express train plane to hell Bahrain. A week’s worth of work there, then hope to be able to buy Spike a beer or 4 in Hong Kong on the way back. Maybe I should ask him to introduce me to Tu…..maybe that’s not a good idea. But I’ll be back through in a week and the offer for a beer still stands.
I’ve said before I love traveling and I do. The crowds at the airport, free beer in the lounge ( a concept unheard of in America…..) and then board the plane. Always gets me excited. I woke up an hour and a half early this am and could not go back to sleep. Kind of like the kid on Christmas morning. Especially knowing I get to visit the “fragrant harbor”.
I have been watching the news coverage of Katrina. The blame game that is now being played out is interesting. It would be funny, if the whole thing were not so down right tragic. Was reading this morning that New Orleans actually had a plan to evacuate people but did not use it! Been trying to find the post I was reading this morning that had an actual link to the plan to use school busses but I cannot find it and there is a big guy standing behind me looking incredibly annoyed that I’ve over stayed my time typing this up. So trust me on this one and you can find links to the same story out there.
I’m not sure if this storm will be a blessing or a curse for Bush. Certainly I’m no fan the President and I think there are lots of things to criticize about him , but some of the charges that were made about Katrina are just moonshine. There is really only one thing I think you can criticize the President about here, and that is that he did make budget cuts to the Corps of Engineers to pay the cost of the war. The Army, like the other services had to sacrifice guns and butter to pay for George W’s Iraq fiasco adventure. So maybe more construction could have been done to the levees. However in the end its clear that the State of Louisiana and the City, simply did not follow the old adage of safety. “If there is doubt, then there is no doubt”. They should have been firing up the buses at the first sign of the storm coming any where near New Orleans. If they had, a lot more people could have been saved. Instead they opted for plan B: do nothing them blame everyone else. To blame Bush for the pace of the response is ludicrous. It takes time to assemble an effort like this and like it or not, when the military does these things they are “pick up” teams. Anybody who says,” well the Tsunami effort was quicker” wasn’t there watching the logistics effort spool up. It took 5 days to get sufficient aircraft to the region and longer to get the ships in position. (And the Navy was the first to get moving by the way, not the quiche eating service in light, pale blue—true story, no matter what the USAF says.). It will get better.
It is, however obscuring coverage of the war, which is something George Bush welcomes. He needs to be careful though, high fuel prices and bad war news coming in the run up to Christmas will put in back in the hot seat. Which is good. Its where he deserves to be. But blame the man for things he controls, not the things that are not his to influence. He did not get up one day and pray to God for a hurricane to strike New Orleans. I wish people would stop acting like he did.
Gotta run and go board the plane!
Skippy-san
